The Wells of Salvation

“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

Isaiah 12:3  

I've been surprised to discover that salvation is a theme of Isaiah.  I think of salvation as a New Testament concept, but in the beginning of chapter 12 the word is used three time including the image of the 'wells of salvation.'

The word for wells means a fountain, a spring, a well, or my personal favorite, a source of satisfaction.  The Old Testament if full of imagery related to wells, springs and fountains.    

-springs in the midst of valleys

-fountains of living water

-a fountain shall come forth

-fountain of life

In a desert land water is literally life.  In Bible times, water determined where you lived and how you travelled.  If the spring dried up, you moved because death came quickly without water.  Although I know that I need water to live, I take it for granted.  I rarely if ever feel an urgency about water, or my urgency is based solely on the thirst of the moment.  

These illustrations have lost some potency for us because we haven't experienced the thrill of water in the desert.  I've even lived in the desert where I ALWAYS travelled with water, but I still never had a time I couldn't get my hands on clean water for a few coins.  In this current age, we live disconnected from the spring that keeps us, our family and our livestock alive.  We have never lived with the dependence on a well for our physical salvation.

Do I live with this kind of dependence on the Lord? He IS the source of life, but just as I take for  granted the clean water flowing on command as I turn the faucet, do I also take salvation for granted? Do I go daily to the well to draw? Do I experience joy related to the well of salvation? I can relate to the satisfaction of a cold glass of water when I'm hot, tired and thirsty.  Where is my source of satisfaction when my spirit is tired and thirsty?  Do I remember the well?